Housing Benefit claims

If you rent your property from a landlord and you are on a low income you might be able to get help with your rent payments.  This is is called Housing Benefit.

Can I claim Housing Benefit?

You can apply to the council for Housing Benefit to help pay your rent if:

• you and your partner have reached state pension age, or
• you live in supported or temporary accommodation, and
• you have savings below £16,000 (unless you get Guaranteed Pension Credit).

If you are not in any of the above groups, you will need to apply for Universal Credit.

Apply for Universal Credit

How Housing Benefit is worked out

The amount of Housing Benefit you get depends on your income and circumstances. It is worked out by looking at:

• your household make-up
• your income and savings
• personal circumstances, such as if you have a disability.

We compare your weekly income with the minimum amount the government says you and your family need to live on each week.  If you have other adults living with you it will reduce the amount of benefit you can receive, unless you or your partner are receiving disability benefits.  You can find out more on our deductions for adults living with you page

If you rent from a private landlord, the maximum amount we can pay will depend on your Local Housing Allowance for the number of bedrooms you need.

We also provide information for landlords on Housing Benefit.

How to make your claim

To make your claim for Housing Benefit, complete our online form.

You will need to give us some information about you, your partner, any children or any other adults living in your home.  Examples include:

• details about you and any other adults that live with you, including names, dates of birth and national insurance numbers 
• your wages and any other state benefits you or your partner receive
• details about childcare charges
• your savings and investments

The form will also ask you to upload some evidence.  This can be a photo of a document or a PDF.  You might be asked to provide:

• proof of identification for you and your partner
• your tenancy agreement
• recent pay slips for you and your partner
• recent bank statements that show your savings or any regular payments you receive
• proof of any other income 

If you can provide all the documents we ask for when you complete the form, we can process your claim more quickly.  The form should take about 15 minutes to complete.  

Apply for Housing Benefit

If you also need to claim Council Tax support to help with paying your council tax, you can use this form to claim to claim both.

Providing supporting information

If you are unable to upload information when completing the online form you can send these to us by email at benefits@nfdc.gov.uk or upload your information using our online form below.

Upload benefits information

What happens next

We will acknowledge the receipt of your claim once you submit the form.  If we need more information, we will contact you.

We will make a decision about your claim as soon as we can.  Our average time to process a claim is 12 days. 

Please do not contact us to enquire about your claim until two weeks have passed after you submit your claim.

When you receive your decision you can dispute or appeal it, if you think our decision is wrong.  Please visit our appeals page to find out how to make an appeal. 

If something changes

We need to be kept informed of any changes that could affect your benefit claim.  Please visit our change of circumstances page to find out about the types of changes you must tell us about. 

Contact us

If you have any questions, or need help with making your claim, please contact us by emailing benefits@nfdc.gov.uk    You can call us on 01590 646121.